Cabinet hinge having separable hinge leaves



Jan. 28, 1969 CABINET HINGE HAVING SEPAHABLE HINGE LEAVES F11-ed June 2s. 196e H. ARIAS, JR., ETAL 3,423,786

lull Ak INVENTORS HENRY 4R/A5, JR., By l//LES K. HQE/1457140 MAHO/VEY Hoen/BAKER ArraeA/Eys United States Patent O 3,423,786 CABINET HINGE HAVING SEPARABLE HINGE LEAVES Henry Alias, Jr., Rowland Heights, and Viles K. Fremstatl, Pomona, Calif., assignors to Ajax Hardware Manufacturing Corp., City of Industry, Calif., a corporation of California Filed June 23, 1966, Ser. No. 560,005 U.S. Cl. 16-171 4 Claims Int. Cl. Ed 7/10, 1/06 ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE This invention relates to a hinge construction and, more particularly, to a hinge construction adapted for utilization in mounting cabinet doors in association with cabinets such as kitchen cabinets, and the like. The invention is particularly directed to a hinge which will perrnit the 'associated door to be readily assembled with or dismounted from operative relationship with the associated cabinet.

While the teachings of the invention will be described as incorporated in a hinge particularly adapted for utilization in conjunction with cabinet doors, it will, of course, be obvious to those skilled in the art that said teachings m-ay be applied with equal cogency to other types of hinges, and it is not intended that such teachings be limited to the specific embodiment of the invention disclosed hereinbelow.

Conventional hinges incorporating hinge leaves which are separable from each other usually are provided with hinge pins which may or may not be dism'ounted from operative relationship with the associated knuckles lof the frame and door hinge leaves. However, such conventional hinge constructions ldo not meet the requirements of high capacity cabinet production because they entail the utilization of the demountable pins which are difficult both to remove from the associated knuckles and to reinsert in operative relationship with said knuckles.

It is, therefore, an object of our invention to provide a hinge having first Fand second hinge leaves which are demountably connected to each other but which eliminates the necessity for the removal of the hinge pin from operative relationship with the associated knuckles of the hinge. Consequently, the difficulties inherent in the use of demountable hinge pins entailed in conventional constructions is eliminated.

An'other object of the invention is the provision of a demountable hinge which includes a first cabinet leaf and a second door leaf, said first leaf having hinge knuckles which are pivotally connected to similar hinge knuckles on the second leaf, and said second leaf incorporating two separable connector and m'o-untlng portions whlch permit 3,423,786 Patented Jan. 28, 1969 the door to be readily dismounted from operative relationship with the frame to which it is secured.

An additional object of the invention is the provision of a hinge, one leaf of which includes .a mounting portion securable to an associated cabinet or door and a connector portion having hinge knuckles hingedly connected by a conventional hinge pin to a second hinge leaf securable fto the other of the cabinet or door.

A further object of the invention is the provision of a hinge of the aforementioned character, wherein the separable portions of the one hinge leaf are provided, respectively, with a co-operative projection or protrusion and a corresponding channel or recess in which said projection is engageable to facilitate the dismounting of said separable portions from operative relationship with eadh other.

An lassociated object of the invention is the provision of a hinge leaf of the aforementioned character wherein said protrusion co-operative with said recess incorporates releasably interengaging detent means to prevent the inadvertent dismounting of said protrusion from said recess.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following specification and the accompanying drawing which is for the purpose of illustration only, and in which:

FIG. 1 is a front elevational view of the lirst hinge leaf and the connector portion of the second hinge leaf forming a part of an embodiment of the cabinet hinge incorporating the principles of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a front elevational view of the mounting portion of the second hinge leaf forming the remainder of the cabinet hinge of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a top plan view of the first hinge leaf and connector portion of FIG. 1 showing an alternate formation of the connector in broken lines;

FIG. 4 is 'a top plan view of the mounting portion of the second hinge leaf of FIG. 2 showing an alternate formation of the second hinge leaf for use with the alternate formation of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is an enlarged, horizontal, sectional view of the first hinge leaf and second hinge leaf assembled and with the rst hinge leaf secured to a cabinet and the second hinge leaf secured to a cabinet door;

FIG. 6 is a fragmentary, reduced, sectional view taken along the broken line 6 6 in FIG. 5; and

FIG. 7 is a view similar to FIG. 5, but showing the alternate forms of the first and second hinge leaves previously illustrated in broken lines in FIGS. 3 and 4.

Referring to the drawing, the embodiment of the cabinet hinge incorporating the principles of the present invention includes a lirst hinge leaf genenally indicated at 10 "and a second hinge leaf generally indicated at 12. All of these hinge parts including a hinge pin 16 may be formed bf the usual metal materials well known to those skilled in the art.

The rst hinge leaf 10 is generally of conventional construction, including mounting holes 18 for securing by wood screws 20 to the doorframe 22 of a cabinet 24, and uniformly, vertically spaced hinge knuckles 26 for receiving interfitting connector hinge knuckles 28 of the second hinge leaf 12 therebetween and aligned vertically therewith so that the hinge knuckles 26 and 28 may receive the hinge pin 16 therethrough and hingedly connect said first and second hinge leaves.

The second hinge leaf 12 includes a connector portion 1l4 which extends generally perpendicularly or, in this ease, horizontally from the hinge connection thereof fwith the first hinge leaf and is formed with tapered upper and lower edges to provide a tapered, free end portion 30 spaced from said hinge connection. Furthermore, the connector 14 is formed with a centrally located circular opening 32 having-a detent prong 34 formed in the edge thereof and projecting angularly outwardly or rearwardly above the remainder of the connector portion 14 adjacent the opening 32.

The second hinge leaf 12 also includes a mounting portion 36 co-operative with the connector portion 14 and having upper and lower mounting sections 37 and 38 incorporating fastening holes 40 for reception of screws 42 in order that the second hinge leaf 12 may be secured to the rear face 44 of a cabinet door 46.

Located intermediate the upper and lower mounting sections 37 and 38 is a U-shaped connector portion receiving channel or recess 48, which is outwardly covered, extending generally horizontally of the second hinge leaf 12 and having an open receiving end 50 opening toward the connector portion 14. The end opening, outwardly channel or recess 48 is tapered to conform to the contour of the connector tapered end portion 30, and the depth of the recess is such that when the connector end portion is received endwise enclosed therein, the channel bottom wall 52 will directly overlie and outwardly cover the connector end portion.

The channel bottom wall 52 of the second hinge leaf 14 is formed with spaced, horizontally extending slots 54 therethrough and opening at the channel open end 50, thereby providing an integral, flexible detent strip 56 having a hook-shaped end portion 58 projecting into the channel 48. The flexible detent strip 56 and the hookshaped end portion 58 thereof are located so that when the connector end portion 30 is received endwise in the channel 48 of the mounting portion 36 in the position shown in FIG. 5, the hook-shaped end portion of the flexible detent strip will detachably engage with the connector detent prong 34 and the opening 32. Thus, the hook-shaped end portion 58 of the flexible detent strip 56 on the mounting portion of the second hinge leaf cooperates with the detent prong 34 and opening 32 on the connector portion 12 to form selectively detachable detent means between the connector and mounting portions of the second hinge leaf for retaining the connector portion detachably secured to the mounting portion and in the mounting portion recess 48.

With the separable hinge leaf construction of cabinet hinge as described, therefore, the first hinge leaf 10 secured to the cabinet 24 and the second hinge leaf 12 secured to the cabinet door 46 are retained through the connector portion 14 for hinged co-operation in the usual manner. When, however, it is desired to completely remove the cabinet door 46 from the cabinet 24, it is merely necessary to release the hook-shaped end portion 58 of the flexible detent strip 56 on the mounting portion 36 of the second hinge leaf` 12 from the angular detent prong 34 and opening 32 of the connector portion 14 so that the connector portion may be slid lengthwise from the mounting portion, thereby removing the cabinet door from the cabinet.

In the event it is desired to provide a cabinet door 46 of partially recessed construction, as shown in FIG. 7, as opposed to the wholly overlying construction, as shown in FIG. 5, it is merely necessary to form the connector portion 14 with the angular ollset indicated by the broken lines in FIG. 3 and bend the ends of the upper and lower mounting portions 37 and 38 of the mounting portion 36 in the manner indicated by the broken lines in FIGS. 2 and 4. This thereby results in the alternate form of construction shown in FIG. 7 which, from the standpoint of the selective detachment or separation of the first and second hinge leaves 10 and 12, 'operates in virtually the identical manner as the construction just described.

Thus, we have provided according to the principles of the present invention a cabinet hinge having separable hinge leaves 10 and 12 which are demountably connected through the connector portion 14 to permit the cabinet door 46 to be readily dismounted from operative relationship with the cabinet 24.

The necessity for the removal of the hinge pin 16 from operative relationship with the associated knuckles 26 and 28 of the hinge is completely eliminated, thereby eliminating the difficulties inherent in the use of demountable hinge pins entailed in conventional constructions. Furthermore, the unique co-operation between the connector portion 14 and the recess 48 for providing this demountable hinge leaf construction includes the provision of detent means for normally retaining the connector and mounting portion of the second hinge leaf together for proper hinged co-operation with the first hinge leaf 10, but the detent means being selectively disengageable for permitting separation between the connector and mounting portion when such separation is desired. Also, the cabinet hinge thus provided may be adapted for any desired form of cabinet door without disturbing the provision and operation of the separable hinge leaf construction of the present invention.

We claim:

1. In a cabinet hinge, the combination of: a first hinge leaf; and a second hinge leaf having a connector portion and a mounting portion, said connector portion being hingedly connected to said first hinge leaf yprojecting generally perpendicularly from said hinged connection, said connector portion having a free end spaced from said hinged connection, said mounting portion having an end opening and outwardly covered channel therein complimentary to said connector portion free end and endwise slidably receiving said connector portion free end therein substantially outwardly covered thereby to permit the separation of said connector portion and mounting portion without disturbing said hinged connection between said connector portion and first hinge leaf, resiliently engageable and selectively releasable detent means between said connector and mounting portions for normally retaining said connector portion free end in said mounting portion receiving channel.

2. A cabinet hinge as defined in claim 1 in which said detent means includes a flexible strip on said mounting portion having a hook-shaped end portion projecting into said channel; and in which said detent means includes an opening formed in said connector portion aligned with said flexible strip and releasably, engageably receiving said flexible strip hook-shaped end portion when said connector portion is slidably received in said mounting portion channel.

3. A cabinet hinge as defined in claim 1 in which said detent means includes a flexible strip on said mounting portion having a hook-shaped end portion projecting into said channel; in which said detent means includes an opening formed in said connector portion aligned with said flexible strip and releasably, engageably receiving said flexible strip hook-shaped end portion when said connector portion is slidably received in said mounting portion channel, a portion of said connector portion adjacent said opening being formed angularly outwardly and being engageable by said flexible strip hook-shaped end portion when said end portion is engaged in said opening.

4. A cabinet hinge as defined in claim 1 in which said detent means includes a flexible strip on said mounting portion having a hook-shaped end portion projecting into said channel; in which said detent means includes an opening formed in said connector portion aligned with said flexible strip and releasably, engageably receiving said flexible strip hook-shaped end portion when said connector portion is slidably received in said mounting portion channel, a -portion of said connector portion adjacent said opening being formed angularly outwardly and being engageable by said flexible strip hook-shaped end portion when said end portion is engaged in said opening; in which said connector portion is uniformly tapered inwardly toward said mounting portion; and in which said FOREIGN PATENTS mounting portion channel is uniformly tapered outwardly 398,963 9/ 1933 Great Britain. toward and comphrnentary to sald connector portion.

BOBBY R. GAY, Primary Examiner. References Cited 5 D L TROUTMAN A t E UNITED STATES PATENTS 's m xam'ne" 2,621,361 12/1952 Schmitt 16-172 U-S- Cl- X-R.

546,909 9/1895 spencer 16-149 16-149 

